


Ex-enemies Can Make the Best Friends

by taibhrigh



Category: RED (2010)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-29
Updated: 2011-11-29
Packaged: 2017-10-26 16:08:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/285250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When William Cooper's family is attacked by the people he works for Cooper has no choice but to ask for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ex-enemies Can Make the Best Friends

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [Siluria](http://archiveofourown.org/users/siluria) for the beta.
> 
> This was written for smallfandomfest #10 on LJ.

William Cooper was a good agent and good at what he did. Until twenty hours ago he had enjoyed his job with the Central Intelligence Agency. Even during the whole fiasco almost two years ago with his boss, Vice President Stanton and all the RED--retired extremely dangerous--agents he had enjoyed his job. He hadn't enjoyed the dislocated shoulder or the fight with Moses since he'd basically lost the fight and that had been something that hadn't happened in a while. It had shown him he needed to widen his training.

Still though, he had been able to maintain one of the best records with the CIA. He'd finally gotten Henry, the Record Keeper, to let him read Frank Moses' full, non-redacted service record. He and Moses had a lot in common. Same training in the Marines and CIA with similar jobs while an agent with the exception of who was the supposed enemy. The biggest difference between him and Moses was that he had done all this while having a family.

A family that had been used against him. His trainers had said it would be his biggest weakness but he'd never listened. His wife, Michelle, had been his lifeline while deployed with the Marines, and his children the only good thing in his world.

But Michelle was now dead. Murdered. His son, Andrew, might not ever wake up, and his daughter, Sophie, had lost her leg and was in a medically induced coma. Worse of all it had been a warning to him to not question his orders ever again. They hadn't been trying to kill him and accidently got his family instead. No, they'd hit the targets they were after--his son and daughter weren't dead because he was better than the three-man team that had been sent after them.

He'd killed them all and now there was no one to question. No one to ask who had ordered the attack. There would be no guards on the doors, no police investigation, nothing. The CIA had swept it all under the rug. He had no idea what the EMTs or ER staff had been told, but no one was asking anything.

William Cooper was pissed and wanted blood. Right now though, the only thing he could do was sit in this hospital room and watch as the machines breathed for both his children.

~~~***~~~

More than five hours later with his adrenaline beginning to wane the doctors started the process of waking his daughter. He didn't know how he was going to help her. He had no other family and neither had his wife. He couldn't be awake forever and he didn't trust whomever it was not to try again.

It would be so easy to slip a fake nurse or doctor into this place. One needle was all it would take.

He pulled out a disposable cellphone from his pants pocket and stared at it for several minutes before dialing the only number programmed into the phone. "I need your help," he said.

~~~***~~~

He was in a light doze when the door to the hospital room creaked open slightly and a man slid in through the opening. Cooper's gun was up, his finger on the trigger.

"You are not..."

"Victoria sent me."

Cooper didn't put the gun down, not even as Moses raised his hands and slowly turned around. Frank Moses was not who he was expecting. He was expecting Victoria. He had managed to stay in contact with her. She had even been by the house and his children thought she was his aunt and had sent her holiday and birthday cards over the last year.

Moses slowly lowered his hands. "She'll be here in a few hours," he said. "I was closer and owe her more favors than I can count."

Cooper didn't sigh even though he wanted to, he lowered the gun, but still didn't say anything.

"I'm surprised they let you go so far in our line of work and have a family," Moses commented. "But then again you were married when they approached you."

He lifted an eyebrow and then actually did sigh. "Henry?" he asked, already knowing that the Records Keeper liked Moses.

Moses shrugged. "Victoria is making arrangements to move your children to the hospital near Eagle's Nest. I understand they've been to Victoria's a few times. So, not home, but not somewhere strange either."

Cooper could only nod. Victoria had taken to being an "aunt" and right now he was grateful for that.

Frank took a deep breath before saying anything else and Cooper didn't think he was going to like what came next.

"I took care of the orderly with the silenced gun. There'll probably be another attempt."

Cooper tightened the grip he had on his own gun.

"Victoria has also made arrangements for your wife and for packing up your house." Frank moved to lean against the wall. "If it's bugged it will get left behind. What we need to know is, are you going back?"

"I..." He hadn't even thought that far ahead. Right now his main focus was his children and killing the son of a bitch that had given the order to take out his family. "I don't know," he finished.

Honestly, he highly doubted it. The last year had been filled with eye-opening behind-the-scenes events. Victoria had hinted that maybe he should consider going into the private sector. He had a secret bank account, a run account that came with full IDs for him and his family, he never thought he'd need it. There was also the stash of weapons and electronics.

"Have you eaten?" Moses asked.

He shook his head. He hadn’t wanted to leave his children alone; and now with his daughter in and out of sleep, he couldn't.

Moses pushed off the wall. "I'll be back in a few," he said.

"Moses," Cooper began.

"Frank," Moses said, barely opening the door before sliding through.

~~~***~~~

When Cooper next blinked his eyes opened Frank was sitting in a chair a few feet from him watching Victoria interact with Sophie. Victoria was sitting on the edge of Sophie's bed and while Sophie had never been all smiles and cheer, even the little grin that was often present was not there. Though Cooper knew his daughter was happy to see Victoria.

"She takes after you," Frank observed quietly.

"So Michelle told me on many occasions."

He stood, stretching the kinks out of his back walked over to his daughter's bed. He leaned down to kiss Sophie on the forehead.

"You smell daddy," she said with kid-like honesty. "Aunt Victoria says you need to go shower."

"I," he started to respond only to be interrupted by his little girl.

"Aunt Victoria says you and Uncle Frank are going to go catch the bad man who hurt me and Andy and mommy."

Cooper looked between the adults in the room before glancing over at his son who had still not moved. When he turned to look back down at his daughter all he could do was nod in response.

~~~***~~~

Sometime between getting him food and leaving the hospital Frank had started calling him Will. His wife had been the only one to ever actually call him that. Victoria called him William and in the Marines and the CIA he'd always been Cooper. Right now the strangeness of it all was probably keeping him grounded.

There had also been no calling Frank _grandpa_ either, especially after Sophie had called the man Uncle Frank. And it was best to not antagonize Victoria with the jibe.

He let Frank drive as plans formulated in his head. They needed a computer. He loved the not-so paperless government, even for off the book jobs there was pay, and pay meant accounts. Accounts that needed to be accessed even if the reasons listed for the taking of funds were lies. Most with those types of accounts had wet work teams. He had the fingerprints of the team sent to his home. Well, he had their fingers. He just needed to find a place to run them. From there they could back trace the team and see for whom they most often worked and see if that person had signed out funds that would equal the normal amount a three-man team would have been paid.

He followed Frank through the police department and watched the man flash police credentials at the desk sergeant. The sergeant nodded and buzzed them through.

"Been here before," he asked.

"Yep."

Will didn't think he wanted to know the details and he didn't have the right to ask. He continued to follow Frank until they came to a door with a sign that read: _Fingerprint Analysis_.

"Take fifteen, will you, Jeff?" Frank asked, sliding the only person who occupied the office what looked to be two one hundred dollar bills.

"Sure thing," the lab tech said, grabbing up his coffee cup. "I'm in need of coffee anyway."

Will pulled out the sandwich baggy that contained the three index fingers. He placed the fingers one at a time on the scanner and watched as the computer started searching.

"If they're smart," he said, scratching his jaw and watching Frank peck-type, "they're not in NCIC or any of the local databases."

Frank grinned at him and a moment later Jeff's computer screen flashed and the CIA logo and login appeared and disappeared.

"I probably shouldn't be seeing this," he said, but moved closer to the monitor.

Five minutes later they'd identified two of the men. The third came back as a soldier who had died five years ago. Will guessed that no longer mattered as the man was definitely dead now.

He pointed to one of the other names on the screen. Harold Wiley. "That name looks familiar. I think he may have done work for Wilkes." It looked like his ex-boss was causing him problems from the grave.

"Stanton ever say anything to you?"

"No," Will answered. "The Vice-President got patched up. He's still running for President as you know. I'm guessing he figured everyone would stay quiet."

"No backbone," Frank muttered. "He's not behind this."

Will agreed on both accounts. Frank flipped through the three men's dossiers and printed what he could. There was one name that appeared over and over: _Canvas_. But neither he or Frank had heard of it.

"We need to see Henry," he suggested.

~~~***~~~

Surprisingly enough, getting Frank into the CIA building was easy, especially as they just walked in through the front door using Will's credentials. He shrugged off the need to report the lax security since it was working in their favor today.

"I need to swing by my office," he told Frank pushing the button in the elevator that would take them up and not down.

He paused at his door. Someone had been at his desk and tried to cover it. There was probably an additional keystroke logger on his computer and he would bet the office had been bugged as well.

Will pushed at one corner of his desk sliding it about a foot out of place, before taking the letter opener from the center drawer and kneeling down to cut at the seam of two carpet squares. The aftermath of his and Frank's fight in his office had had the benefit of allowing him to create a more secure location to hide things. He pulled out two manila envelopes before returning the squares to their position.

Frank didn't say a word, just helped him quietly move the desk back into position. Will grabbed a document bag from a drawer and slid the two envelopes inside along with the photo of his family from the shelf behind his desk and the three clips for his gun before walking to the door. He didn't glance behind him as he left his office.

Henry was happy to see Frank and surprised to see Frank with Will. Will shrugged it off. He did have a reputation as being standoffish. The Records Keeper looked between the two of them and for the first time Will thought he saw something sad in the normally jovial man.

"Canvas?" Frank asked.

Henry froze and then sighed and went to a drawer. He rifled inside for a moment before pulling out a thick file and plopped it on the table in front of them. The file was not redacted.

Whatever _Canvas_ had started as more than twenty years ago it wasn't that any longer. What surprised Will was that his name was associated with it. He'd been assigned to one of the teams for three missions at the beginning of his career but had not been made a permanent member of the operation.

"Says you didn't work well with others," Frank grinned as he skimmed the reports.

Will gave the other man a glare before actively shrugging. "Didn't like them," he said as if that answered everything and maybe for Frank it did since the other man nodded and flipped through several more pages.

 _Canvas_ was four teams of three who, before a year ago reported to Cynthia Wilkes. They were basically, in the plainest of words, assassins for hire for the rich--making sure their interests within the government were fulfilled. They were all very bad men with extensive training and with Wilkes dead they now answered to Senator Robert Kinsey.

"Seems you got caught in another house cleaning," Frank said just as Will asked, "Got a copy machine?"

Will found it a little strange that Frank was in sync with him as the older man started handing him specific sections from the folder. Sections that he had planned to copy. He hadn't worked with a partner in years and he briefly wondered, _what if_.

Henry's bushy eyebrows raised. "Maybe it's time I retire," Henry muttered as they came out of the side office fifteen minutes later.

"I hear New Mexico is lovely this time of year," Frank replied with a nod.

Will didn't say anything, just handed Henry a smaller envelope from within the document bag he was carrying. He didn't wait to see Henry open it before walking out the vault door. He already knew what was inside--a driver's license, passport, social security card, and bank cards all with Henry's picture and a new name.

"That was nice of you to do," Frank said when they were back in the car.

Will made no comment as Frank drove them out of the city.

~~~***~~~

While he and Frank had been on their reconnaissance trip, his children had been moved to the exclusive hospital out near Eagle's Nest. He was sitting quietly between the hospital beds as Frank and Victoria whispered back and forth.

"We can't kill a senator," Frank said, rubbing his hand across his bald head.

"You were going to take out the Vice-President who was, and still is, running for President," Victoria reminded Frank in a voice that Will was happy was directed at the other man and not him.

"That's diff...okay, so it's not different," Frank admitted.

Victoria was good, Will thought watching his daughter sleep--her favorite stuffed dog held tightly in her arms. As promised Victoria had his house packed--bugs and trackers removed and everything was in storage. They would not be returning to the house where his wife had died.

Will ran his fingers gently through his son's hair before straightening the blankets. Andrew was now breathing on his own but had still not woken. The doctors were giving him better odds.

"I can kill the man," he said softly, his words sounding hard even to his own ears.

His comment didn't seem to phase Frank at all, as if the older man had known what he was going to say.

"And the other nine _Canvas_ operatives?"

"Burn them."

~~~***~~~

Burning the agents had been harder than killing the senator, which they hadn't actually had to do. The senator had ended up killing himself without the help of any outside forces. It appeared that while the senator could dish it out to others he couldn't take it himself. The man had grown nervous after Frank had somehow arranged for the senator's summer home to mysteriously burn down.

Ivan had then been helpful with providing additional intel on the senator that hadn't been in the _Canvas_ file. Dirt that Will had let leak to the press in Los Angeles, Chicago, London, Paris, DC, and New York. Three different stories, all damning the senator for crimes from blackmail to taking bribes for votes, to murder.

The senator had killed himself before the ink on the indictments had even dried. It had been a little anticlimactic for Will; part of him had wanted to personally kill the senator for what the man had done. Will still didn't know why and that just pissed him off.

The first three man team they burned turned on themselves and he and Frank had celebrated that little victory with steak and beer.

Of the second three man team only one man was dead. The other two were now living quiet lives in rural Canada.

The last team, Frank had called Marvin to help with removal of those agents. Working with Marvin had been different and Will had stayed out of the argument between the two retired agents.

But _Canvas_ was no more and right now he felt that he owed Frank and Victoria.

~~~***~~~

**Almost two years later.**

William Cooper had spent the first six months of his _retirement_ with his children. It had been a long road for them and they were still acclimating to all the changes and to the loss of their mother.

Andrew's hand still shook and he still exhausted easily, but the doctors were optimistic that would fade. Sophie's rehabilitation and use of her prosthetic leg was progressing at a rate the doctor thought unbelievable for someone so young. Both his children continued with the weekly visits to a psychologist, but they were both on the road to recovery and for that Will was grateful.

Sophie and Andrew received postcards from their Uncle Frank at least once a month. There had also been three or four from Marvin. Will was skeptical there as Marvin wasn't exactly sane, but he guessed everyone needed a weird uncle in their lives and his children found him funny.

Once his children had settled into their new house he had then spent the next four months adjusting to his new job. Sheriff. He wasn't ever going to ask how Victoria pulled that one off, but he was the sheriff for the little town where Eagle's Nest resided. During tourist season he had to deal with drunks and petty theft. In the off season it was quiet. He found it relaxing. Though there were the occasions where he'd help Victoria with one of her _jobs_ when he needed the excitement.

This tourist season the town council had decided to throw in a summer long fair with carnival rides and games and markets every weekend. Frank had come to his rescue again and was working as a deputy. Will hadn't asked for the help but Frank had just appeared.

Maybe ex-enemies could make the best friends.

~end~

**Author's Note:**

> June 4, 2013: This story now has a sequel [Life in a Small Town](http://archiveofourown.org/works/829857).


End file.
